It had been a few years since I raced in cobourg. Hell, it had been a couple of years since I raced a triathlon solo. Too much time hauling the blind dude around.
Decided at the last minute to head down to this race for some kicks, and to see what it was like to race alone again.
Got there early and registered. Set up and wondered what to do with myself as I didn’t need to help Ryan set up.
The swim was cold 58. So I headed down to the swim start real early and spent 15-20min. getting used to the temps. By the time the race started my body had adjusted (went numb) and it was a non issue in the race.
Had a good swim (3rd out of the water in my wave, 5th overall) and headed out on the bike. It was taking a while to get my legs under me. Basically was just holding my position. There is a steap hill just before the turn around and really suffered up it, but it cleared the legs out and they woke up by the top. So I was looking forward to hammering it home. Coming back up the otherside of that same hill on the way back I was about 3/4 the way up when my chain broke. Looked down at the chain lying in road and thought “Not again!” 2 years ago in this very race. At the exact same spot my pedal fell off my bike (stripped the crank). Well. Off came the cycling shoes and it was time to start jogging the bike in. My race for a result was over, however, my race to get to the line really just started. I wanted to see how quickly I could get myself back to T2.
It wasn’t too bad actually. Managed to run on the grass a bit, and running on the white lines is easy on your feet. It was probably the slowest 20 km of my life 56minutes. But I beat the sag wagon in.
On the run my goal was to catch a buddy of mine that passed me a couple km before transition as fast as possible. So I headed off with a full head of steam. No worry about my body needing to get used to running as I had been doing it for 9km already on and off. Caught him at 3km. Ran with him for a couple of hundred meters and then kicked it home strong. Felt good. Quick, but well within myself. Basically, it was a good training run for nationals in Kelowna next week.
Tough, but ultimately fun day. Not what I was hoping for, but ce la vie.
